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I believe this Scotties will become strictly a two horse race: Englot vs Jones.

Can't really see Jones losing to any team east of the Manitoba border. Perhaps she might lose 1 game to one of the Ontario teams before the playoffs begin, but that's about it. And west of the Manitoba border, I am aware that Scheidegger has come close on a few occasions over the last several years but I can't recall that she has ever defeated Jones in a playoff situation. Is there some reason to believe Scheidegger is going to suddenly break thru now? Don't think so because if I recall correctly, her defeats were were definitely not the result of how well Jones played in the final two or three end. Just the opposite, it's because Scheidegger herself was absolutely awful, even worse than Jones!

And now ,of course, we come to Manitoba itself and the fact that Einarson has been suddenly thrust into the field. But when you consider that over a period of 10 years she has never,ever defeated Jones, how can you possibly see her in the winner's circle? Should make the playoffs, but that's about it.

If Englot and her team curl as well as they did in last year's Scotties, they are more than capable of winning gold. Two months ago , even as late as the "Cup", I had her written-off completely. And I actually felt sorry for her when she was forced to , on occasion, make shots that were clearly above her skillset level. Recently, however, I was watching some replays of last year's Scotties and I could not help but be very impressed. So while I haven't really seen anything positive in this year's performance to date, I simply have a feeling this team just might rediscover the form of one year ago. Just a hunch.

Englot's super-power is her massive curling brain. . . . . she knows she's physically limited in what kind of shots she can pull off so she works well around such things.

Obviously she's soiled herself on the tour this year - not even coming close to the curling brain who beat Homan twice in the '17 STOH and within a couple inches of taking Rachel out completely in the STOH gold medal final.

The Van Osch family totally disrespected Englot when they went down 4 after 9 and still played it out - forcing Englot to make her last rock takeout in order to avoid a 4-ender by Van Osch. Disrespect in that they said - OK, Michelle we know you're very shaky with your takeouts so you (and the Nunavut skip) might be the only 2 skips capable of gassing 2 straight hits!

I wouldn't underestimate Scheidegger. Might take her a couple games to get her sea legs but she toppled all the so-called Alberta Aces to get her. She's not leaving without a struggle.

Jones is Jones. The greatest Manitoba female curler of all-time - - - also the most mercurial. She can donate games like no other. If its vs. Englot she should win 8 times out of 10. I would think that number is lower vs. Einarson & Schiedegger. Here's how Jones would fare in 10 game series with some of the STOH aces:

my gosh, that canada/BC game was boring. terrible advertisement for the women's game. canada looked strong and had great numbers but it's not hard to look good when your opponent isn't asking you to make complicated shots. BC never , at any time had canada under serious pressure and never got anything going themselves and, frankly, never looked like they could.

nunavut is not very likely to have even a remotely competitive game

manitoba looked great. shannon herself ws incredible. very impressive debut game on the national stage

surprise result would definitely be northern ontario getting blown out by nova scotia

ontario really hung in tough with alberta. might have to reconsider their chances of getting out of the group. didn't think they would

TSN once again proves just how lousy it's judgement is in stepping away from the manitoba/saskatchewan game and instead going to northern ontario/nova scotia. no, let's not cover one of the more competitive games.

quote:Originally posted by EPMD I think it's time to give up on the Nunavut idea. From what the commentators said, it sounds as if that team hasn't even played together before this tournament. If that is true then I don't think they should be involved in the national title tournament.

I'm all for inclusion, but the whole situation with the Nunavut team is a bit ridiculous.

Pretty accurate predictions. I'll go out on a limb (when do I do that?) and pick Quebec over Canada in the early draw. . . . . . but only if the young Quebecois can figure out that Englot is weak at takeouts.

Don't see BC getting plundered by PEI, but I do agree with you that Englot will be snuffed out by Scheidegger. Shouldn't be close unless Casey comes down with a severe case of the shakes - which I doubt!

quote:Originally posted by misty1 couple of thoughts about opening day:

my gosh, that canada/BC game was boring. terrible advertisement for the women's game. canada looked strong and had great numbers but it's not hard to look good when your opponent isn't asking you to make complicated shots. BC never , at any time had canada under serious pressure and never got anything going themselves and, frankly, never looked like they could.

I agree. Team BC seemed so focused on keeping their own shot selection simple that they forgot to try to make things difficult for their opponents. So TSN can pat Van Osch on the back all they want about her mechanics and her shot percentage, but anyone who watched that match knows those numbers are fool's gold. Of course, BC gets to play Nunavut and PEI today, so they may still get to 2-1 and sneak into another TV game down the road.

It was as if they needed Carey to round out the superstars (well-known teams with track records on the TV circuit) vs. the fawns and loss-providers they have to show at least once.

Now the only super well known team is Jennifer Jones. . . . . . and TSN takes a ton of heat from around the country for being The Jennifer Jones network (TJJN) already!

Scheidegger is well known as an up 'n coming team by insider curling fans but that's about it. Einarson, despite delivering Chels Carey's head on a platter lack of training and specific strategies doesn't excite curling fans other than her home base. Same with Fleury, Duncan, Anderson, Van Osch, etc Englot might be standing in as Team Canada but Michelle has now earned a reputation as being unable to execute certain types of shots (even the broadcast team mentioned this and they rarely discuss weaknesses of individual players like I do)

what a brilliant try on that last shot in 10 from the quebec skip. her rock comes up just a little more and she makes it for the win. i'm really impressed with what i see here. giving englot everything she can handle

quote:Originally posted by dugless_zone 13 What the Hell is Manitoba Legend babbling about? I wish someone at the nursing home would take the channel changer away from him and limit his access to the communal computer terminal.

As predicted, he'll turn this into a JJ thread. I don't think he's every made a post that didn't include the name JJ.

quote:Originally posted by misty1 what a brilliant try on that last shot in 10 from the quebec skip. her rock comes up just a little more and she makes it for the win. i'm really impressed with what i see here. giving englot everything she can handle

Nice to see some of the teams are struggling. From what I have read I thought manitoba was the only team there.

quote:Originally posted by misty1 the commentators can try and make the whole nunavut situation sound like an interesting story all they want but it's really not and no one's falling for it. it's ridiculous

From the bits and pieces that TSN showed of the game against BC - they were awful...I'm still shaking my head at the fact that the skip hadn't played with them until last night!

From the bits and pieces that TSN showed of the game against BC - they were awful...I'm still shaking my head at the fact that the skip hadn't played with them until last night!

And surely there were a dozen or more other skips that they could have recruited other than Amie Shackleton with basically no provincial/national experience.
And if Holly Duncan is Ontario's second best team then ON curing is in serious trouble,

quote:Originally posted by decade
And surely there were a dozen or more other skips that they could have recruited other than Amie Shackleton with basically no provincial/national experience.
And if Holly Duncan is Ontario's second best team then ON curing is in serious trouble,

I agree about the Ontario situation. I live in the Toronto area, and the clubs around here do a poor job of opening the door for younger participants. I wonder if that happens all over Canada or if that is just a Toronto thing.

As for your comment about the Nunavut skip choice, I wonder if there were a few curlers who would have rejected such an invite because it felt so unearned. It cheapens the tournament to just appoint a player like that, and it's kind of a slap in the face to the other teams who had to fight all their curling careers to get into this field.

Based solely on form (and accumulated percentages) it really shouldn't be close - Englot is terribly shaky at takeouts of almost any kind but her curling IQ is high so her struggle might be to stay away from takeouts - using Kate Cameron as her clearing house.

Just too many of those 65 to 70 per cent outings to convince me that Englot can remain unbeaten - if Scheidegger curls according to prior form.

quote:Originally posted by EPMD
I agree about the Ontario situation. I live in the Toronto area, and the clubs around here do a poor job of opening the door for younger participants. I wonder if that happens all over Canada or if that is just a Toronto thing.

As for your comment about the Nunavut skip choice, I wonder if there were a few curlers who would have rejected such an invite because it felt so unearned. It cheapens the tournament to just appoint a player like that, and it's kind of a slap in the face to the other teams who had to fight all their curling careers to get into this field.

duncan is far from the second best team . they used a triple knockout format, which is far conducive to upsets more than a round robin is. you're more likely to get some shocks. with middaugh, harrison and flaxey , out of form and tippin likely a little tired the stage was set for a surprise winner and it happened.

Tiny Tracy Fleury looks about as out-of-sorts as anyone participating in the 2017 STOH.

Crystal Webster (her import 3rd) is fighting like the dickens to keep NO in play - Crystal knows the calendar is against her but she's trying like the dickens to get her team to the playoff round.

Stacie Curtis also a surprise - she's doing what Nfld teams are supposed to do. Captain Trickett as her coach - that's fantastic. Remember Old Geno from the 82 Brier in Brandon where he front-ended for Marky Noseworthy about 36 yrs ago.

Team Scheidegger's percentages remain high (almost as high as Jones but Jones has had sketchy competition thus far) so I expect Casey to eventually overpower Michelle "Don't Let me Toss Hits' Englot.

Most surprising performance thus far is Emma Miskew, Jr. (aka Shannon Birchard) who continues to light things up in the high 90s (for both games to date). Both games vs. fawns though - lets see what she can do when the going gets rough - and it will . . . .

duncan is far from the second best team . they used a triple knockout format, which is far conducive to upsets more than a round robin is. you're more likely to get some shocks. with middaugh, harrison and flaxey , out of form and tippin likely a little tired the stage was set for a surprise winner and it happened.

Agree to disagree. The true triple knockout is by far and away the best way get the best team to advance. Let's say the "best" team wins the A side. They drop to B semi along with the "2nd best team" from the A side, Rather than sit and wait 2 days like they do at the slams.
Then one of those 2 best teams from A side go on to win the B side then down to C etc etc
All along the way the winning teams are eliminating the losers. If you don't or can't win, what makes you think you deserve anything else? Triple knock out can be done in 4 days which saves time and money for the teams. A prolonged round robin opens it up for a lesser team at say 5-5 or 4-4 to squeak into the playoffs and get on a roll and win it all with a team at 10 -0 after the round robin going home.
Regardless the best team will and always does win and in this case Duncan was the best in Ontario. They won. ALL the others lost. The end.

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